The start of 2018 marks ICC’s implementation of a system whereby international venues can incur demerit points for a substandard pitch or outfield. If a ground incurs 5 demerit points, it could be banned from hosting international matches for one year, while a ground which incurs 10 points could be banned for two years. We will have to see whether this new system will motivate groundstaff to ensure that all regulations are met, or whether the system will result in some grounds being banned from staging matches. My instinct is that there will be little or no bans enforced, as I would have thought that they would only be enforced if grounds re-offend.

Well done to Dawid Malan on reaching 55 not out and on sharing a partnership of 133 with Joe Root.

However, it was disappointing that the gloss was taken off the day when Australia used the second new ball to take the wickets of Root and Jonny Bairstow just before the close.

The wicket of Root did no favours to his hopes of answering those who claim that he needs to convert more of his fifties into centuries, as it was the 49th time he has passed 50, and the 36th time he has fallen between 50 and 99.

It is difficult to disagree with those who say that a nightwatchman should have come in instead of Bairstow.

With England beginning the final day of the Sydney Test 210 behind with six wickets remaining, it was already looking unlikely that the match result would be anything other than an Australia win to seal a 4-0 series win for them. Therefore, the last thing England need is news that Joe Root has had to go to hospital as a result of dehydration, probably caused by playing in temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius yesterday. Surely, there is no way he will resume his innings at the start of the day's play. Indeed, I wouldn't have thought there would be much chance of him coming in later, especially as his presence probably wouldn't make much difference to the match result and would certainly make no difference to the destination of the Ashes.

Oh well, on the last occasion most of us can remember a player not out overnight being unable to resume their innings, a crossbow prevented any possibility of a result being achieved.

Yes,Vaughan said about playing 1st county games of season abroad....was he sunstroke or had too many Castlemaine XXXX during the day?
Never heard something as crazy as that since the FA mentioned a 39th game played overseas.
Same bloke was sucking up to Boycott when saying some truths yesterday during end of series interview.Can see Vaughan being another ECB yes man.
Only 2 or 3 shone during whole disgraceful series,and some will be worried about future selection.
Next up is the One Day series then fly to NZ for ODI and t20 followed by 2 tests......

I am not sure how playing two County Championship matches in somewhere like the West Indies or Abu Dhabi would help England perform better on future Ashes tours, although maybe it would help them when they go to those destinations. If it does happen, they hopefully it would be in addition to playing 14 matches in the UK rather than coming from those 14 matches, as a reduction to 12 matches taking place in the UK would not only further deprive supporters of matches to watch, but it may also give players fewer opportunities to play Championship matches during the summer months. If matches overseas are played in addition to 14 matches in the UK, then at least it would provide an opportunity to return to playing 16 matches, with nine counties in each division.

It was a surprise England struggled so much in Australia, is I don't think they have historically found the conditions there alien. Usually, the only region where they have had big difficulties has been the sub-continent.

It hasn’t been widely-publicised, but England's Twenty20 matches in Australia and New Zealand will be part of a triangular series in which each team will play the other twice, with the final taking place in Auckland.

John Emburey has proposed that a £3m fund should be created in order to improve the quality of spin bowling in England over a six-year period, and will discuss the issue with Andrew Strauss. The annual contributions would be £200,000 from ECB, £10,000 from each first-class county, and £5,000 from each minor county.

I'm not sure what the point of a £10K contribution from counties would be given that the counties get money from the ECB. Just fund it entirely from the ECB. To the ECB an extra £180K is surely just a drop in the ocean.

One of the problems with spin is that too many spinners seem to be pushed towards one day, and more particularly T20, cricket. The conventional one day wisdom of thirty years ago that saw all-seam attacks has been turned on its head by the challenges of T20 and spinners who turn the ball away form the batsmen are now highly prized. Most counties have spinners who rarely see the light of day in the CC Think Stephen Parry, Nathan Sowter, Will Beer, Tom Smith. Most of all, Max Waller, who doesn't even get a CC game when Taunton is turning square; it's enough to make a man take a rake to the pitch. It is presumably worth counties' while employing them for just 50-60 overs a season. So why not try and manufacture a financial incentive for counties to produce spinners for the CC? A bonus from the ECB if you play more than 1.5 spinners on average? Or if spinners bowl more than X per cent of the overs in the season?

An argument against would be that it distorts selection decisions and works in favour of counties which produce wickets extremely friendly to spin. Delete the word "extremely" and I'm happy with that. I don't want wickets where mediocre spinners get brilliant figures but wickets which reward spinners who bowl with real skill would be a great improvement.

The other end of the spectrum is fast bowling. That is more difficult because most of us would be physically incapable of bowling fast, whereas most of us could run in two paces and bowl something which should turn a bit (whether it lands on the pitch is another matter). You can't incentivise sheer pace in the same way because it is a matter of luck whether you find someone that fast but what you do need is pitches that do not neutralise their pace and the end to bowlers being told to slow down for greater accuracy.

The only other thought I have is that genuinely quick young bowlers would benefit from being loaned to a lower CC2 county, as there is no risk of relegation to make them too risky to pick. Of course, if they do really well the county will no longer be lower CC2!

Well done to England on finally winning an international on this tour. Although their Test fortunes haven’t really improved over the last few years, they have made much more progress in ODIs.

Evidence of how England have been far behind the rest of the world in this format until recently is that Jason Roy’s 180 was the highest-ever for England, yet sits down in 23 among all teams, and was 84 behind Rohit Sharma’s record of 264. Roy's innings makes him the only player other than Andrew Strauss to have more than one 150 in ODIs for England, although Strauss still leads 3-2 in this regard.

England will certainly hope that this result will be the springboard to win the series. The fact Joe Root’s 91 not out was England’s only innings above 14 other than Roy’s means that they are unlikely to get carried away.

As much as I like Channel 9’s presentation, I was surprised that BT carried it rather than used their own commentators and graphics like they had during the Test matches, as Sky used to use their own presentation for all matches whenever England toured Australia.

' When England beat them (Oz) at home, it's often close; when they lose away, it's one mauling after another. Unless the ECB and county cricket get serious abut playing fewer matches (how many not stated), on better pitches, in the summer months, the domestic set-up will never produce world class fast bowlers and spinners.

Until then, prepare to keep losing away from home.'

A couple of observations on Booth's rant. We are playing fewer matches than last time. This appeared to not make the slightest difference.

I can't see Booth's logic re spinners. Playing less games ain't gonna help them with less wear on the square being one effect.

Well done to England on winning the ODI series 4-1. It probably doesn’t make up for the Ashes defeat, especially as Australia’s win in Adelaide on Friday denied the Barmy Army’s hopes of a 5-4 aggregate in England’s favour, but England will be heartened by the fact that there is a format in which they beat Australia by a comprehensive margin.

England now have a week-and-a-half wait for their next international, which is a Twenty20 match v Australia on Wednesday 7th February. However, they will have two warm-up matches on Thursday and Friday against a Prime Minister’s XI. On the Saturday, Australia and New Zealand will begin the triangular series.

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